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In cricket you’ve got to average 60 to be world class

Eddie Jones

“Sir Alex says that after twenty-six years at the biggest club in the world and he has seen two world class players,” Jones said, referring to Ferguson naming Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the two stand-out players right now.

“If you’re a world class player then if someone picks a World XV. He picks that player. It’s a unanimous choice. If you look back at the New Zealand side in the past eight years. Richie McCaw and Dan Carter are the unanimous choices. They’re world class players because in every game they played they were eight or nine out of 10. They never slipped down to a six or a five. That’s being world class.

“In cricket you’ve got to average 60 to be world class.”

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Sir Alex Ferguson (right) says Cristiano Ronaldo is a rare world class player in football

Former United manager Ferguson also named Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Eric Cantona alongside Ronaldo as the footballers he believed reached world class status.

“In rugby we’ve got some players doing exceptionally well. But that doesn’t mean they’re world class yet,” Jones said of his England team.

“It doesn’t mean they’re not great players. It’s not a detriment on English rugby that we don’t have that.

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“Now, obviously we want to have by 2019 four or five world class players. Because then that gives you such a solidity of performance that it doesn’t matter what game you put in, you’re going to play well because you’ve got those four or five guys who will play eight out of 10 every game. We’ll get there.”

Asked if there are any world class players among the competing teams at the Six Nations, Jones said: “I haven’t thought about that. I don’t coach the other players so I’m not concerned.”